Chương 13
Camille wore jeans and a black sweater.
Elena almost failed to recognize her.
“You cut your hair,” Elena said.
Camille touched the shorter ends.
“It was falling out.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Stress, not disease.”
“I’m still sorry.”
They ordered coffee.
Camille stared at the lid.
“I keep thinking about your phone.”
Elena said nothing.
“I smiled.”
“Yes.”
“I wasn’t smiling because he hurt you.”
“It looked like you were.”
“I know.”
“Why were you smiling?”
Camille took a breath.
“Because Adrian had told me you were trying to create a scene. When you dropped down for the phone and he stepped forward, I thought you were doing something dramatic.”
Elena’s mouth tightened.
“That doesn’t make it better.”
“No.”
Camille pulled at the cardboard sleeve around her cup.
“I had spent three years translating him for people.”
“What does that mean?”
“When he insulted someone, I said he was demanding. When he changed his mind, I said he was dynamic. When people quit, I said the pace wasn’t for everyone.”
“That was your job.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
Camille looked at her.
“Eventually I started doing it for myself.”
Elena understood that more than she wanted to.
Camille took a sip.
“The night at the penthouse, when security came in, I was still translating. I thought you had overreacted. I thought your father had overreacted. Then Adrian locked the door after you left.”
“You said it was three minutes.”
“It might have been two.”
“It probably felt longer.”
Camille nodded.
“He never touched me.”
“I know.”
“That bothered me afterward.”
“Why?”
“Because I kept using it as proof that nothing happened.”
Elena looked through the window.
A woman outside was trying to fold a stroller while holding a toddler by the wrist. The toddler sat down on the sidewalk in protest.
Camille said, “Did he ever hit you?”
“No.”
“Me neither.”
Elena turned back.
Camille gave a small, embarrassed shrug.
“I don’t know why I asked.”
“I do.”
Neither spoke for a while.
Finally Camille said, “I was jealous of you.”
Elena almost laughed.
“Of what?”
“Everything.”
“That’s vague.”
“The name. The board seat. The way people listened when you entered a room even when you didn’t say anything.”
“They were waiting to hear what my father thought.”
“That isn’t how it looked.”
“And I was jealous of you.”
Camille blinked.
“Why?”
“You knew the company better than I did.”
“That’s depressing.”
“It is.”
Camille smiled despite herself.
Elena did too.
The smiles disappeared almost together.
“Were you sleeping with him?” Elena asked.
Camille’s face changed.
“No.”
Elena believed her.
Not because Camille looked innocent.
Because she looked offended by how predictable the question was.
“No,” Camille repeated. “Never.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re allowed to ask.”
“I didn’t want to become the woman who asks.”
“Well. Here we are.”
Elena looked down at her coffee.
“Did he ever try?”
Camille hesitated.
“Once.”
“When?”
“Two years ago.”
“What happened?”
“I told him I liked my salary.”
Elena laughed.
Camille did too.
It lasted several seconds and felt inappropriate.
Then Camille’s eyes filled.
She looked away.
“I’m probably going to lose my career.”
Elena did not tell her everything would be fine.
It probably would not be.
“You may.”
Camille nodded.
“I keep wanting someone to tell me I was manipulated.”
“You were.”
Camille looked at her.
“You were also paid very well to ignore things.”
The hurt showed.
Elena nearly took it back.
She did not.
Camille wiped one eye with the heel of her hand.
“Yeah.”
“I was manipulated too.”
Camille waited.
“I was also a director who signed things without asking enough questions.”
They sat with that.
No rescue.
No clean division between victims and fools.
Outside, the toddler finally stood. His mother snapped the stroller open with one hand and looked briefly victorious.
Three weeks after the board vote, the independent committee released its preliminary findings internally.
Adrian had failed to disclose material conflicts in at least two related-party transactions.
He had exceeded internal reporting requirements.
He had directed subordinates to remove or revise financial schedules in ways the committee described as misleading.
The committee had not determined whether criminal fraud occurred and referred relevant materials to outside counsel for assessment and, where legally required or appropriate, to regulatory and law-enforcement authorities.
There was no dramatic arrest.
No agents appeared at dawn.
No handcuffs.
Adrian was terminated for cause by a six-to-one vote.
The lender freeze lasted seventeen days.
One hotel opening was postponed.
A contractor sued over delay costs.
Cross Meridian announced a temporary chief executive from outside the Vale and Cross families.
Marcus disliked him immediately, which Elena considered encouraging.
Adrian’s attorneys challenged the termination and threatened litigation over the board process.
Dana called that predictable.
Elena filed for divorce.
The petition was quieter than she expected.
Names, dates, addresses, property disclosures.
Four years of marriage converted into numbered paragraphs.
When Dana asked whether Elena wanted to seek temporary restrictions on Adrian contacting her directly, Elena said yes.
Not because she believed he would attack her.
Because she knew how easily one calm phone call could turn into three hours of explaining herself.
Adrian contacted her once through counsel afterward.
He wanted the signet pendant returned.
Elena read the request twice.
“Why does he think it belongs to him?” she asked Dana.
“He says it was listed among household jewelry for insurance.”
“It belonged to my mother.”
“Then we document that.”
“Is he actually fighting over a necklace?”
Dana looked at her.
“He may be fighting over the fact that you used it.”
Elena touched the pendant.
She had stopped wearing it after the board meeting.
It sat in a small box beside the bed.
The emergency signal that night had lasted less than a minute.
The consequences had occupied months.
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By October, Cross Meridian had recovered part of the money tied to the Halcyon transaction after negotiations with the fund and Adrian’s private partnership. The exact amount remained disputed.
Camille entered a cooperation agreement with the independent investigation. She was not absolved. She was not publicly charged with anything. She moved to Chicago to work for a small communications firm run by a woman who, according to Camille, had never once described herself as a visionary.
